Small factor, combined NAS and router [Inspiration and suggestions wanted]

[ChrisAcrobat]

I have had a plan to build my own NAS for some time now (go figurers 🙃), but I have waited until I would get my new router from my new ISP to see how much space I will have left in my cabinet to build on. And now when I have got it I can without a doubt say that it is worse then my old one, so now I what to build a router as well! 🙌
I have built computers for personal use before, but nothing like a NAS or a router. But I do like to tinker (Home Assistant ❤️, which current flickers some of my lamp bulbs due to main-bulbs can't get a good connection to said router), but since this computer literary will be on the edge to the internet I want the security to be tight.

I know that VMs is not currently supported, but my idea is currently to run pfSense in a VM (if it's not already an app) and route WAN through it.

Cabinet space
Depth: 115-140 mm (~25 mm is a cut out for the fiber-box that can't be moved, but is located in one corner)
Width: 445-575 mm (~130 mm is the fiber-box)
Height: 335-365 mm (~30 mm is the fiber-box)

Case wishes

• Support disk hot swap.
  Not really needed, but would be cool. It will probably be easier to just disconnect it and take it out of the cabinet. And the reason for having hot swap is then lost by that point.

I have seen Minisforum's MS-01, but one OS disk and two mirrored disk does not really entices me.
ASUSTOR Flashstor (Gen1) seems cool, but does not have any wifi (for the router), but that could maybe be added with USB? Or by placing a switch/AP on the case's "LAN-port".
I haven't found any ATX/ITX case (at least that I have chosen to remember), but that would be the preferred option, so the hardware can be updated without buying an entire new system.

[Theo]

Maybe others will chime in but IMO i wouldn't run my router inside a VM, inside my NAS... I can just see too many things to go wrong, and too many issues getting everything set up! If anything as a VM inside Proxmox Installed on the bare metal, then Hex in a separate container at minimum.

As for routers in general, if space is an issue, have you looked into Ubiquiti? i've got the Unifi UCG-Ultra which is tiny but powerful, and will hardly take up any space, then you can choose where to put an AP.

As for the NAS, if space is the biggest concern, then really a SFF M.2 pre built nas would probably be the go too? Perhaps something like this from UGreen or Asustor.
But then i hope you have budget for the SSD's.

Also if space is an issue, again a small Prebuilt 2 Bay Nas could work, or if you want large capacity, perhaps look into / think about placing it elsewhere and running ethernet (if you don't have runs already?)

[Dylan]

@ChrisAcrobat - User @ulfn is a SFF ninja - he may be able to give you some feedback!

[Sonic]

Looking at the cabinet space, depth seems to be the biggest challenge. An Intel NUC is already 115 x 115 mm, and then you still have the ports at the back. I’m not sure how much storage you need, but there isn’t much room for hard drives.

Furthermore, I agree with @Theo that running your router in a VM is not ideal. As a solution, you could consider using two devices: one for NAS (storage, apps, VMs) and one as a router.

Router Suggestions:

You could consider a mini PC from Ikoolcore, which can run pfSense. There are many other vendors offering similar devices:
🔗 Ikoolcore R2

Mikrotik and Ubiquiti also offer great routers for a homelab.

NAS Suggestions:

Perhaps the Terramaster (F8 SSD Plus or F8 SSD) could be a good option:
🔗 Terramaster F8 SSD Plus

Or the LincStation N1 (the N2 with 10GbE is launching soon):
🔗 LincStation N2 NAS Review

I personally use an Aoostar WTR Pro. It supports four hard drives and has its ports on the side, which might be useful given your limited space:
🔗 Aoostar WTR Pro

These are just a few ideas—I hope they help! You can find great reviews of many NAS devices on YouTube. Also, ServeTheHome is a useful website.

Just my 2 cents.

---

[Dylan]

On 1/31/2025 at 10:58 AM, Sonic said:

Just my 2 cents.

Excellent feedback @Sonic!

[ChrisAcrobat]

Thanks for the tips!
I just ordered an F8 SSD Plus. I will probably ending up ordering something from Ubiquiti, but that will be a separate project.
Thanks for the help!

[Sonic]

Please share your experience with the F8 SSD plus. 😀

[ChrisAcrobat]

For the moment: Not great.
I get this when I try to boot from the HoxOS-iso-USB:

error: unkown filesystem.
error: unkown filesystem.
error: unkown filesystem.
error: unkown filesystem.
error: unkown filesystem.
error: unkown filesystem.
error: unkown filesystem.
error: unkown filesystem.
error: unkown filesystem.
grub rescue>

I've just started the troubleshooting, so maybe a fix is around the corner.

[ChrisAcrobat]

Etcher solved the issue.
Source:

 

[Sonic]

On 12/18/2024 at 3:33 PM, Suljaman said:

Hi All,

I'm super excited about this project and I finally have all the components I need for my new NAS, I wanted something small, quiet and with decent power, here is the breakdown:

• TerraMaster F8 SSD Plus
• 48GB DDR5 RAM - TerraMaster says it only supports 32GB, but it seems to work fine
• 8 x 8TB WD Black SX850X NVME drives
• 512GB NVME Boot Drive - This is a 2230 nvme inside a small USB case and connected to the internal USB port on the motherboard where the TOS USB drive lives. The only downside is that this is only USB2.

Things to note:

There seems to be an incompatibility with the Debian backend which resulted in the system to go into a boot loop. To fix this I had to make the following changes in the BIOS

• Disable Secure Boot
• Disable VT-d
• Disable ‘Boot TOS first’

Once this was done I was able to install HexOS, all 8 nvme drives were detected and setup with raidZ1 giving me 56TB of total storage. The RAM and 10GB NIC also function correctly, though the dashboard icon displays it as 5GB, however I was able to confirm it is actually 10GB from the terminal.

I've setup my first shared folder and performed some basic copy and paste tests, I'll do some proper performance testing and report back. As the Intel processor has an iGPU I will also get Plex installed and test some transcoding.

I'll probably wait until version 1 is released before making the jump and migrating all my data from my Synology NAS. Until then, I look forward to testing new features as they are released.

Keep up the good work HexOS team 🙂

@ChrisAcrobat See also this post above. Probably you have to change some BIOS settings. You can always contact @Suljaman, since he has the same device.